I don't read books for pleasure, but in desperation.

The old man began to sing. His voice was very lovely and obviously a part of something that the world had disposed of in its haste, evidence of a grander, kinder past.

I'm an elephant today. I will need to have lots of room and also a bowl of water on the floor.

Clarity is the most important thing to me - in thinking - and so I try in the books to be as clear as possible.

First, he says, you have to go out into the world. This is not a simple matter of going outside one's door. No, that is simply going out. That's what one does when one is on the way to the store to buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a bottle of wine. When one goes out into the world, one is shedding preconceptions of past paths and ideas of past paths, and trying to move freely through an unsubstantiated and new geography.

I like small books. I like durable books. I like plain books. I like small type and thin pages.

I don't start with an idea or concept in the sense that I flesh out an idea or concept and set it at the center of something.